Some Woodlands residents oppose plans for widening project

Parkway proposal

CHARLIE BIER, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Thursday, January 29, 2004

The Woodlands Operating Co.
officials unveiled plans last week for widening Woodlands Parkway from four lanes to six. But many residents who attended a public session on the project said they were opposed to it.

Dozens of people who would be affected by expanding the now four-lane parkway into a six-lane road viewed a series of diagrams and concept design renderings of the potential expansion.

Many residents, who were provided with comment sheets for expressing opinions about the project, said federal funds or no, they don't want the road widened in any fashion.

Residents have complained the project will take a long time, the larger road will create noise and pollution and the increase in traffic will erode the quality of life in neighborhoods along the parkway.

"It's going to be a mess and it's not going to be a short mess. It's going to be a long mess, and an enduring one," said Rena Stevens, who lives on East Racing Cloud Court in Panther Creek.

Stevens said she felt the public input session was meant only to appease residents, not solicit input.

"I have not ever had an encounter with (Woodlands officials), but I think that's the way most governmental agencies work when they have a little thing like this, that they have already made up their mind how it's going to run, but they can say, `We had a meeting to consult the residents.' "

Robert Heineman, the operating company's vice president of planning, stressed the importance of the project.

"Right now, the traffic going over the (Woodlands Parkway) bridge is 50,000 cars a day. The capacity is 35,000. So the widening is needed," Heineman said.

The estimated $6 million project is now the subject of environmental studies and preliminary engineering work.

Up to 80 percent of the funding could come from federal funds passed through the Texas Department of Transportation, pending a positive analysis springing from the engineering, environmental and noise analysis studies.

The proposals being considered call for one lane to be added to the eastbound and westbound lanes of Woodlands Parkway.

One proposal calls for widening Woodlands Parkway on the outside, where existing eight-foot shoulders would minimize the pouring of new pavement.

Heineman said 12-foot lanes and two-foot shoulders would require only six additional feet of concrete be added.

Another option would be creating the new lanes to the inside, where median space would be utilized.

Heineman said ongoing widening of the intersections along Woodlands Parkway "will alleviate a lot of the problems, but eventually, you look down not very far, you really need to widen the main lanes also."

Alex Sutton, The Woodlands Operating Co. vice president, gave no timetable for the project, which hinges on completion of the studies.

"This is an interim step. It's simply to say these are the alternatives that have been designed and they're out there for people to comment," Sutton said.

"We're still working on it. I would guess it would be two to four months before the document's approved. If it's approved, they can get about 80 percent federal funds through TxDOT," Leon said.

The Woodlands officials said shifting traffic flows and trends, as well as planning for future growth, mandate the expansion of the parkway.

Heineman said expansion plans are nothing new.

"Woodlands Parkway has been planned as six lanes since the beginning. It was on the last bond issue, which was passed overwhelmingly in South County, so it shouldn't be a surprise," Heineman said.

At the input session, resident Mary Best distributed a nearly one-page, typed argument against expansion that cited the loss of "hometown" atmosphere a six-lane roadway would bring because "towns do not have six-lane thoroughfares, cities do."

Best said a loop would be a more viable option to easing traffic increases caused by the influx of homes west of Gosling.

"If we want to get people from the western part of The Woodlands out to (Intestate 45), we need to have a loop around where they don't stop," she said. "Towns as small as Lufkin and Nacogdoches have loops around their towns. Why can't we have loops when we probably have more money in our town than they do?"

Best said she didn't know anyone in favor of the project.

"I haven't met one resident here (at the public input session), and I don't know of any residents that would want to increase the traffic," she said.

Sutton said he can understand resident concerns, but felt Woodlands Parkway will be widened regardless because of growth to The Woodlands and long-standing plans to do so.

"My personal opinion, and a lot of people don't like my opinion, is we plan for it to be six lanes and ultimately traffic will demand that it be six lanes," Sutton said.